If this is love, then I would rather have never met her.
The squeaking of rats jolted me awake, cold sweat dripping down my body.
When they saw me stir, they cautiously backed away, but didn’t flee, as if they knew I was too weak to even shoo them away.
The iron door creaked open, and a burly man tossed a bowl of spoiled food into the room.
"Eat. Don’t starve to death. Ms. Alba said you still have to pay off your debt."
I let out a hoarse, desperate whimper, shaking my head with all my might.
I didn’t gamble!
I didn’t owe anyone anything!
The man furrowed his brow impatiently:
"Trying to play some trick again?"
I shakily extended my mangled fingers, dipping them into the water stains on the ground. With great effort, I scrawled an uneven message on the cement floor.
[I am Celine Alba’s husband.]
The man stared at the words for a moment, then burst into laughter, as if hearing the greatest joke of his life. "You're Celine's husband?"
He pulled out his phone and started a live stream, shoving it in my face. "Open your eyes and take a good look. Celine's wedding is about to start. I wonder how many lives you have to dare impersonate her husband!"
On the screen, Celine stood at the entrance of a hotel, wearing a pristine crystal wedding gown, with a bouquet of fresh flowers pinned to her chest, anxiously scanning the crowd.
"Ms. Alba, the auspicious time is almost here. Why hasn’t the groom arrived yet?"
The host’s puzzled voice came from the phone.
Celine frowned, glanced at her watch, said something to her bridesmaids, and then turned to enter the hotel.
My heart tightened. Had she noticed something was wrong?
"Are you done looking?"
The man withdrew his phone and stomped on my writing hand, crushing my fingers.
"I could tell from yesterday that a toad like you wants to eat swan meat! I never thought you’d still be so persistent! You probably don’t know, Ms. Alba's husband is a well-known forensic expert, highly regarded even by the police! Not someone like you, a deadbeat gambler!"
The pain sent me curling up in a ball, but a flicker of hope rose within me.
'As long as Celine notices I’m missing, she’ll definitely come looking for me!'
—
At the hotel, the auspicious time had arrived.
Guests whispered among themselves, and the host adjusted the schedule for the third time.
Celine stood in the lounge, dialing Kristian's number over and over again, but it kept going unanswered.